Pages

Saturday, July 18, 2015

Hello everyone: I've been busy with the grandkids this Summer, but I still try to steal a bit of time for making cards to participate on several challenges. This time it's for Freshly Made Sketches with a really awesome sketch by Kim Singdahlsen. This is the card I made.

This pretty ovals are from a retired Flourishes stamp set called "Old Fashioned Florals", I stamped the images with Stazon Jet Black ink onto Canson water color paper and colored them with SU markers and the aqua painter, my favorite way to add color to my images.
I die cut them with Spellbinders Oval Regalia dies , embossed a piece of Strawberry Slush card stock with the Filigree Frame embossing folder (retired) and arranged them according to Kim's fantastic sketch, I added one of the small butterflies from SU Papillon Potpourri , I think it looks so sweet flying out of this pretty floral frames.
I hope you like this card, as always, I welcome and appreciate your comments and questions.
Have a great weekend, enjoy the heat, my friends. Up here in NW Indiana, we actually only have the rest of July, August and maybe September of warm temperatures, I just hope this year's Winter will be a bit kinder to us.
Many hugs.
Maria.

Thursday, July 16, 2015

Hello everyone: From the moment I laid eyes on The Wilderness Awaits in the new SU catalog, I wanted it immediately. All of the four images are stunningly detailed and gorgeous. I have a hard time making masculine cards so, when I saw this set, it screamed MASCULINE to me loud and clear.
The Pals Paper Arts sketch for this week is ideal to showcase the beautiful Fox, that looks up at you with a sweet, trusting expression that really is endearing. So, here is the card I made with this image

This card is destined for one of my dear Triathlon friends who is recovering from knee surgery, he loves the outdoors so I thought this image would definitely cheer him up. As you can see, there is very little bling on this design, I really don't think it needs any, all I added was 4 little copper eyelets with my Crop-a-dile. I was fiddling with some ribbon to tie the leaf (made with the lovely but retired SU "Gently Falling" stamp set) and the sentiment, stamped with the Teeny Tiny Wishes in Rich Razzlelberry and punched out with SU Word Window Punch, love how all of the sentiments in this set fit perfectly in that punch. The leaf was inked with Versamark ink and stamped on water color paper, then I heat embossed it with Silver Pearl embossing powder. I colored it with SU markers in Rich Razzleberry and Pumpkin Pie.

I'm sorry that the picture doesn't show the shimmer of this embossing powder, it looks really beautiful in person. After trying several ribbons I decided to go with this very old twine to tie my bow, I think it looks just right.
So, there you have it, my little foxy all curled up and ready for a nap in a field of pretty Summer flowers, what do you think? Please let me know, ok? and if you have any questions, I will be more than happy to answer them.
Till next time, hugs.
Maria.

Tuesday, July 14, 2015

Hello everyone: The challenge for the month of July over at the Power Poppy blog is HANG SOME PAPER!!!!! Hosted by the fabulously talented Leslie Miller . Now, this challenge is not about Card Stock, mind you.....Leslie is asking us to use patterned paper, goodness, gracious!! Most of my crafting friends know that I just don't like DSP all that much, don't get me wrong, I love the patterns, most of them are lovely, sharp, colorful but for me, they represent a challenge on their own. My brain just can't deal with it, no kidding, when I see crafters making gorgeous cards combining patterns and cardstock I get so jealous. ME?.....well, I see DSP and I freeze!! I don't buy a lot of this type of papers, I do own some but I don't use it often, specially double sided DSP, if the one sided kind is difficult to deal with, the double sided paper makes it impossible (for me) to decide which side to condemn to obscurity forever.
So this Power Poppy July Challenge made me step out of my comfort zone and try, really try to come up with some kind of design that will follow the requirements for it.....this is the card that I made, please, just bare with me.

Believe me when I tell you that this rather simple card took me almost 10 days to complete!!!!! I made a ton of backgrounds with all kinds of papers from my very humble stash, my craft room look like something weird had exploded in there, there was paper clippings all over the floor and on my work table and on top of the counters, then the mess follow me to the kitchen table, where I showed some of the "layouts" to my ever patient husband who, I think, was even more lost than me when I kept asking "which one of this papers look best, honey?" and kept a stoic attitude through it all, gosh!! Back in my craft room, I looked like a mad scientist experimenting, cutting, pasting, arranging and rearranging layouts with disastrous results. So I left this alone for a while, I decided to let my brain rest, regroup, refresh, restart, recharge and I proceeded to cleaning up the mess and vacuuming the evidence of my experimentation, ughhh!!
Well, today I came back to face my nemesis , who patiently was waiting for me to resume the battle, I took a look at my stamped image, which is one from the lovely Potted Primroses by Marcella Howley, and finished coloring it, I stamped the sentiment and die cut the tag, sat at my desk and started again thinking about how I can create a card for this challenge, I really didn't want to give up. Since I truly do not know how to combine patterns, I finally figured that I needed something that I can start building with so, I went to the closet and grabbed the box of pink paper scraps, I rummaged for a bit and finally I found that wide piece of DSP I placed under the bow, the colors are bright and pretty so I just grabbed it and let it guide me. The lay out took some hard thinking too, I went from horizontal to star burst to vertical, cut skinny pieces, big pieces, die cut pieces, sheeesh!! until finally I arrived at this layout and when I did, I again walked away because I really liked it and I didn't want to start messing it up, later I came back and glued everything in place, took the picture and I was done.
This is the challenge banner that pushed me into the uncharted territory of DSP.

I hope you like this card, I know I went on and on about this very simple theme (for most) which is DSP, I know I should not feel so darn intimidated by it but that is the way things are, I wish I could attend a seminar or something where I could learn not to fear this lovely papers and learn how to combine the patterns, that most times are so beautiful, to add variety and interest to my cards.
Anyway my friends, I thank you for reading this post and for your comments and as always, if you have any questions, (which I totally doubt for this post), please just ask me. I always try to reply to all the comments, ok?
Thanks again for visiting.
Many paper (not DSP) hugs for you.